The seven segregated “Negro Leagues” that played baseball from 1920 to 1948 are now considered part of Major League Baseball, and their records will be added to the MLB’s record book, the league announced Wednesday. “All of us who love baseball have long known that the Negro Leagues produced many of our game’s best players, innovations and triumphs against a backdrop of injustice,” MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement. “We are now grateful to count the players of the Negro Leagues where they belong: as Major Leaguers within the official historical record.” Major League Baseball did not integrate until April 1947, when Jackie Robinson debuted at first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers. The Baseball Hall of Famer had first played professional baseball two years earlier, as a member of the Negro Leagues’ Kansas City Monarchs.
